It’s pretty sad as a blogger, especially one who focuses on organizing, when you do something and you think ooooh that could be a blog post. That’s what happeend yesterday morning for me. I knew I had to clean the boys playroom. I was going to take all of these before and after pictures. Fast forward 3 hours and the playroom is finally clean and organized.
Shit
I forgot to take the before pictures.
How can I share a how-to with out effing pictures.
So please trust me when I tell you that this post was going to be awesome with all of these great pictures. I will tell you the process I went through and I how came out with more then an organized clean room.
When me moved into this house it had this add on that is best described as a enclosed sun room. We were going to tear it down. My mother had a genius idea to leave it up while the boys are small as a playroom. I was so excited to get all of their toys out of my living room.
Now it’s become this mess of crazy stuff and a room I’m afraid to go into. For the past 4 weeks that room looked like helllll! I told R that when I got back from New York, I was going to gut that room of trash and toys.
I went in with 3 garbage bags, a 6 year old and a 4.5 year old. I wasn’t sure if all 3 of us were going to come out of there alive. I told them that 1 bag was for us to throw away the toys that were broken, all papers and “art work”. The other bag was for all of the toys we were donating. (The 3rd was a 2nd trash bag.)
I explained to them that by donating toys they would be donating to their schools for all of the kids to play with. This really excited them both but especially E. He immediately pulled out all of his plastic dump trucks. He was so excited to give all of them for the sandbox at school. He loves the sandbox, and I think he’s pretty excited about sharing them with his friends.
I decided we’d do the playroom in corners. We had 3 corners to clean. Left hand picture is a picture of 1 corner after being organized.
We first sorted toys. Star Wars toys together in one clear bin. Matchbox cars in another clear bin. We wound up with the one with matchbox cars filled to the brim. They weedled them down to 1/3 of what they had previously.
When we went through all of the puzzles I thought we would give some of those to A’s daycare. When I told them my idea, they decided all of the puzzles should go to A’s daycare. They said that the kids there would like them.
When we got to the books we made 3 piles. One was to keep, one was to give to E’s classroom and one to give to J’s classroom. We got rid of about 1/4 of our books. We love books in our house and we are overrun with them. I thought that donating to the schools allowed us room for new books, while helping the schools build up their libraries.
In the end despite having to raise my voice more then I ever thought possible, and 2 kids who couldn’t focus, it was a fantastic experience for all 3 of us. I included them in the process of giving to others. Yes, it was their schools, but they felt like they were sharing. I want them to learn the power of sharing and how it can make us feel good about ourselves. Children should feel the giving part first hand. I’m glad to see that joy in them.
one angle of the pile of toys to give away
the toys they are donating
So I’m sorry that I don’t have a tip laden clean the playroom post. I think that I can give you this tip though: getting your children in the process of purging is a wonderful bonding experience. I may have lost my mind in that playroom, but I came out happy.
Twitter: alanamorales
says::
YAY – I’m not the only one who has had a playroom that messy before! LOL When we moved into this house, we lost our kid room and I miss it terribly. I like that you are donating the toys to the school – that’s a great lesson there!
Alana Morales recently posted..Monday Mom Moment – vlog – I give you permission- but don’t tell anybody
Twitter: FashOrganized
says::
Alana,
The kids are so excited about donating to their schools. I am so proud of them. I’m so glad I was able to teach them the lesson of giving.
OMG…I just went through our playroom too! The only difference between your experience and mine was a screaming kid afraid that I was finally following through with the “if you don’t clean up your toys I’m throwing them away!” threat. After she calmed down…and wasn’t looking, I was thinning things out. We are about to embark on birthday and holiday season…I need room!
Liz @ Sunny Bug recently posted..research
Twitter: FashOrganized
says::
Liz,
Every birthday and holiday season I go through the play room when they’re not there and get rid of almost everything. This time including them for donation purposes taught them something and I am very proud of them. I will tell you at first when I didn’t tell them we were donating they were freaked out. LOL! They thought I was following through too.